Old Habits
by Ayla Pascal
Summary: AU. Oliver wins but he finds that old habits die hard.


There's only one cell in the Maximum Security wing and it's always heavily guarded.

There are whispers about who is in the cell. Some say that it's Nick Cutter. Others argue that it's Helen Cutter. Still others claim that it must be Jenny Lewis.

Only one man knows the truth.

-*

"Did you know," Oliver says conversationally as he stands over Lester's crumpled figure on the cell floor, "that I called this prison after you?"

-*

Oliver Leek walks out of Lester Goal every day whistling. He's won. The original ARC team are all dead or stranded in time except for James Lester. It pleases Oliver to keep his former boss alive. There's something seductive about the broken body.

"Do you remember how you used to belittle me?" Oliver says as he sits next to Lester on the narrow cot. He reaches over and strokes the other man's face.

Lester flinches away from him.

"Answer me." Oliver's voice is coaxing.

"Yes," Lester says, his voice a bare croak.

"Do you remember how you were?" Oliver says. "A fine man, in the prime of his life." His upper lips curls and he rips open the rags Lester is wearing. Lester barely reacts. "Look at yourself! Look at what you've become!"

He watches as Lester looks down and is pleased to see how shock still registers in the other man's eyes.

"Yes," Oliver digs one sharp fingernail into Lester's ribcage, "just look at that. Nothing but skin and bone." He trails his finger down the loose folds of skin on Lester's stomach, over the fine down of hair that had grown over the other man's entire body. "Pathetic."

-*

Sometimes Oliver brings a knife in with him. There's something beautiful in the sound of Lester's blood dripping down onto the stone floor.

He likes to count the drops.

One.

Two.

Three.

Four.

-*

Lester's skin has become tougher over the years and yet somehow, more papery as well. Oliver doesn't like it and decides to bring in some lotion.

As he rubs in the sweet violet scented lotion into Lester's unmoving body, he realises that this is the closest he's gotten to another person since his victory. Everybody else just salutes or bows. Here, with Lester, he can be himself.

He looks down and is surprised when he sees that Lester has a hard-on.

-*

Oliver finds himself thinking more and more of James Lester. Not the man who used to be his boss. That man was arrogant and dismissive. No. He thinks of the man in his cell. The man who's always there, who will never leave him. The man who has listened to his secrets. The man with the strangely sweet blood and enticing moans.

"You don't have to stay here," he offers one day. "You could come home with me."

Lester is silent for almost a minute and then nods. "Okay," he says.

-*

Oliver finds that Lester moves slowly, jerkily, almost like a marionette. He finds Lester's habit of pausing by every closed door quaint. He thinks that he trusts Lester but he installs state-of-the-art security cameras and hides away all of his weapons anyway.

"Now if you misbehave," he warns, "then you're going back to the maximum security wing."

-*

The first night Lester climbs into bed beside him, Oliver is shocked.

The second night, he discovers he quite enjoys it. He isn't quite sure what he should do when Lester rocks slowly into him from behind in the morning, hard-on sticking into his back.

The third night, Oliver throws his head back as Lester works his tongue over his cock and screams as he comes down his throat.

-*

They settle into a comfortable routine and Oliver allows him a few more liberties. Lester is allowed out of the house now for simple grocery shopping. Oliver discovers that he really enjoys coming home to a home-cooked meal. Lester's recipe for Shepard's Pie is surprising delicious.

He even manages to delude himself into thinking that maybe, just maybe, Lester is happy here.

That's why he is so surprised when one evening, Lester turns to him with a sharp questioning look in his eyes that Oliver hadn't seen for a very long time. It sends a shiver down his spine. "What happened to the team?"

Oliver doesn't answer.

-*

Oliver realises that he's slowly losing his grip over Lester. Every day, he sees more of a spark in Lester's eyes, more surety in his movements. Every night as Lester slips into the bed beside him, Oliver realises that more and more, it's James Lester who's in control here.

-*

The second time Lester asks him what happened, Oliver tells him.

"Abby and Connor were killed in the original battle. We aren't sure what happened to Nick, Helen or Jenny. We believe they might have escaped through an anomaly. It's a moot point now anyway. Our new Anomaly Blocking Technology stops them from appearing."

There's a stricken look in Lester's eyes. "So I'm all alone here."

It takes all of Oliver's strength to not kiss him right there.

-*

The old patterns are so easy to slip back into and Oliver doesn't even notice it the first time he brings Lester coffee in bed.

"Thanks," Lester says offhandedly. "Can I have some sugar?"

Oliver hurries off to get it.

-*

"You seem different," one of the guards at the Goal tells him. "Are you sure you made the right call with Lester?"

Oliver waves his hand irritably at him. "Yes, yes," he mutters, while his insides are churning. He isn't sure at all.

-*

"I'm useless here," Lester tells him one day. "I could help you."

"Help me?" Oliver repeats blankly.

"Yes," Lester says. "In the office."

Oliver agrees before he even realises what he's doing.

-*

Slowly Oliver watches as the reins of his life slip slowly but inexorably back into the hands of Lester. It's ironic, he thinks, I made this happen.

And every night, Lester slips into bed beside him and Oliver thinks that, maybe, just maybe, it might have been worth it.


End file.
